PlutoLighthouse.NET Blog

Monthly Archives: December 2012

After a very long hiatus, the Mega Man RPG Prototype has been updated a bunch more features and upgrades and I’d like to share some of them with you! The two biggest changes you’ll notice when playing the game are the addition of password-protected save files (yay!) and background music for each stage! I’ve also completed the background and foregrounds of many more fields/stages and even added some background enemy animation to a few of them!

Music has been added to the game in the form of MP3/OGG files and the implementation is quite simple. Appropriate stage or menu music loops in the background while you’re playing and can be toggled on and off with the mute icon at the top. Nearly all music used in this demo came from the Capcom Music Generation – Rockman 1~6 album hosted at The Mega Man Network with the exception of Time Man and Oil Man’s stages which were made by YouTube user bsolmaz13. There are no sound effects in this game simply because iOS devices only allow a single audio stream and the iPad is my primary target device. Even without sound effects, I think the music adds a whole lot more ambiance to the game which I appreciate a great deal.

Regarding animations, I’ve finished several more of the robot master stage backgrounds with colourful scenery and even little background enemies that have their own animation loops to give the fields a bit more personality. There are still a few more that I need to complete, but for the most part it’s coming along nicely. I’ve also changed the way robots are displayed on the field, having them scaled proportionately to how far away they are from the viewer where before they would all be exactly 40px by 40px and arranged in a crude arc-shape. I’m still struggling to find a way to incorporate larger enemies without messing with the code too much (as in, larger than 40px by 40px base) but I’m sure I’ll figure it out at some point.

Save files have also been added (finally!) and with this change you can now play access your game and continue your progress from any internet-connected device with a capable browser. As an example, I can play the game on my computer for a bit in the morning, continue playing on my iPhone during my trip to work, then play some more on my iPad when I get there or on my work computer if I choose to. It’s pretty awesome, and you don’t need to register an email or any personal information – just a file name and a password and that’s it! If you do not create a save file, you only have access to the four demo levels, but if you do you’ll be able to play as either Dr. Light or Dr. Wily (like before) and fight through their own scenarios. In the “final” game you’ll only be able to play as Dr. Light but you’ll be allowed to add any robot to your team (not just the MM1 robots), but for now having the game split between the two characters makes it easier for testing. Battle points also have a bit of a purpose now, with leaderboards being added to the main menu! The leaderboards show the top ten save files based on the overall battle point amount, and I think it’s a pretty cool way of seeing who else has played the game. ^_^

In regards to mechanics, I’ve made it so that there are now two ways to increase the strength of your robots. The first, like before, is by leveling up. Simply having a robot participate in battle (without being disabled) will grant them experience points. The amount of experience points gained is equal to the amount of battle points the player collected divided by the number of robots who survived the battle. Therefore, bringing more robots into battle with you will ensure you stand a better chance of winning, but it will decrease the experience points each robot gains. The second way to strengthen your robot is by making sure they land the finishing blow on the opponent. Previously, landing the finishing blow against an enemy robot would temporarily boost your stats by 10% of the target’s attack/defense/speed. Now, that boost has been reduced to 1%, but the effects are permanent. In this way, you can selectively “train” your robots in a particular stat if you want. Is your Guts Man too slow? Defeat Oil Man enough times and you’ll be able to make Guts Man much faster! Need an attack boost? Train against Bomb Man! It’s very similar to EVs and IVs in Pokémon, and that’s completely on purpose. I hope you will enjoy the change. :)

And finally, the change I had the most fun with, was the robot selection process. Previously, each mission had a preset amount of robots you could bring with you into battle and that made for some pretty boring battles. I’ve since updated the game so you can take as many or as few of your robots with you into battle up to a maximum of eight, meaning you can take a full team of eight robots to fight one bad guy (easy fight, little experience) or take on a group of bad guys with one robot (hard fight, massive experience). It really adds a lot to the game, in my opinion. :D

Oh, I’ve also created an Imagur album will all my development screenshots so far with the game. Please have a look and let me know what you think!